


No Escape

by Loremaiden



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Arthur Conan Doyle - Freeform, Community: watsons_woes, F/M, Great Hiatus, JM Barrie - Freeform, Prompt Fic, Theatre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-19
Updated: 2015-07-19
Packaged: 2018-04-10 04:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4377446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loremaiden/pseuds/Loremaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No rest for the rude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to JWP 2015 #19 (While You Were Sleeping) on Watson's Woes.
> 
> While You Were Sleeping. Watson is presumed unconscious/asleep/comatose, but he can hear everything everyone says at his bedside.

The libretto was awful.

I was grateful to Mary for procuring the tickets for opening night; an evening at the theatre, we believed, would be a welcome respite from my black thoughts during the second anniversary of Holmes' death. We thought a collaboration between Dr. Doyle and J.M. Barrie would be nothing but pleasant entertainment. How wrong we were.

We wanted to walk out like some other audience members had done, but that would have been the height of public rudeness; not only to the cast trying their level best with the subpar script they were given, but to my editor and friend.

While Mary watched the play, determined to see it through come hell or high water, I tried to escape, I am ashamed to say, by falling asleep. I had slept through infernal heat and gunfire, I told myself; surely I could sleep through a dull musical?

But no matter how hard I tried to reach the company of Morpheus, the company of _Jane Annie_ kept me trapped in the waking world with atrocious verse like this:

 _Their conduct's praised, we are amazed, Miss Sims doth sympathize. Now let us sing, of this wonderful thing, With a hyp-hyp-hypnotize!_

I felt Mary's hand delicately rest on my right shoulder. "Are you asleep, love?"

It was useless. I opened my eyes and told her the truth I would never, in good conscience, tell my old colleague. "No, but I wish to God I was."

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a true story: Doyle was called in to assist his friend J.M. Barrie (pre- _Peter Pan_ ) with writing a comic libretto. The italicized text is straight from the play. _Jane Annie, or The Good Conduct Prize_ debuted on May 13, 1893. It, uh, was not well-received.


End file.
